Catch Me If You Can
by O.Z. The Unknown
Summary: An underdog origin story of Nico Shinobu, the mysterious hitman vigilante known as the Shinigami who earned the title of the faceless grim reaper of the underground criminal world. Burdened with an enormous debt left behind by his vanished father he must take down the city’s most dangerous villains in order to repay it. Or die trying.


It was a beautiful sunny early morning day at the city community park as a young light skinned blonde high school girl was rushing to meet her boyfriend near the water fountain. There standing near the fountain was another high school student, a light skinned ginger haired boy with enormous pepperoni freckles all over his face. He seemed happy to see her and so was she.

"Sorry I'm late, my alarm clock must've stopped." She said with a respectful bow.

"It's quite alright, not a problem." The boy said with a smile.

The girl smiled back in return before they both sat down together on a park bench. A few minutes passed as the sat there, the girl suddenly cleared her throated before speaking.

"I'm really glad we got to do this, and here I was thinking something bad would happen." The girl said rubbing her shoulder and blushing slightly.

"Why would anything bad happen? We're not doing anything wrong, are we?"

The girl smiled at this.

"No, I'm just glad I'm with you is all."

"Me too."

The two shared a quick kiss right before the boy snapped a quick picture of them together on his phone.

"(gasp) Look at the time, we better get going before we're both late to class."

"Agreed."

The two started to leave holding their hands together as they walked when the girl heard something, it sounded like someone was groaning in pain.

"Huh?"

"What is it?"

"I…thought I heard something."

"It was probably nothing."

""Hmm…yeah, your right. Must be my imagination."

The two continued to walk off, with the girl completely unaware of the boy tied up in rope covered from head to toe in bruises laying in the bushes. That boy looked exactly like the boy she was walking to school with.

Later that morning:

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!"

The school building shook as the upset cries of a boy whose faced greatly resembled a fleshy grey puffer fish filled the hallways as his tears flooded from his eyes staining his school uniform, the boy held the phone containing the picture of the secret couple enjoying themselves. Meanwhile another male student was leaning against the lockers as he watched his friend cry his eyes out.

"I told you she was no good for you Kokobi, but this is just ridiculous. Just be glad I was able to prove it before she could do something worse." He said with a sigh and a roll of his eyes.

"But why? I gave her everything: gifts, love, care. Why would she cheat on me?"

"I'm only telling you this because I'm your friend….you have the face of a fish and you smell like rotting sushi when you sweat."

"….I do sweat a lot."

Kokobi wiped his tears with his sleeves and blew his runny nose in his handkerchief.

"Thanks Nico, I was right to count on you at least."

"It was nothing, happy to help. But you do know my fee."

"(sigh) Any chance of having a friend discount?"

"Sure. Just give me $20 and buy me some chips at lunch, sound like a deal?"

"Like I have a choice."

The 20 dollar exchange was made and the phone was returned to the boy apparently named Nico. Nico was a dark tanned skin tone with short silverish grey white spikey hair that resembled wispy clouds or light smoke at least, his eyes of course was his most prominent and unique feature being a golden yellow color with a deep sclera. As unique as they may looked he much preferred to keep them hidden behind a stylish pair of black circular sunglasses that went along with the normal Yokai Garden high school uniform. The favor he just did for his friend was your average everyday information hustle which was a skilled specialty when it comes to using his quirk Mirage, an deception and stealth ability not nearly as flashy or as popular as the other quirks students around the school were gifted. But what the power lacks in flare it makes up for in demand as he became the school's go to source for information on students, teachers, events, (or even on rare occasions do a little sabotage if you paid the right price) earning the title of "The Ghost of Yokai Garden High" for his perfect record of never getting caught. After parting ways with his marine friend Nico started heading towards the mess hall for lunch when-

"MOCHI…ATTACK!"

He was surprised as a light skinned girl with puffy pink hair, short baby horns, tiny pink bat wings, and a tail ending with a pink cotton ball suddenly hugged him from behind, thankfully he happened to know this girl very well.

"Good morning Mochi." He said with a sigh.

"Hi-Hi! I have news!"

"Good or bad?"

"Both."

"Give me the bad news first."

"Why do you always ask for the bad news first?"

"So I have some good news to look forward to."

"Huh, never thought of it like that. I should try that."

"So the news?"

"Oh! Oh…the bad news is that... I'm failing P.E."

Mochi covered her eyes with her hair in embarrassment.

"Really? How can you fail a subject that easy?"

"Well…."

Last week:

The students were dressed in their workout attire and reported to the gymnasium as the P.E. activity for the day was dodgeball, the class was then divided into two teams which stood on opposite sides of a row of rubber dodgeballs. Toru Giriki, a lumbering caveman of a boy whose quirk seemed to be having the appearance of a giant gorilla was deemed the first team captain naturally choosing students who were just as big and barbaric as him while Mochi (who didn't really enjoy the game in the first place) was unfortunately chosen as the second. As soon as the whistle blew Giriki grabbed two rubber balls with his meaty fists before launching them across the gym hitting two of Mochi's teammates with the force of cannons leaving them beyond dazed on the floor, after seeing that she started hiding behind her other teammates but one by one they were sniped with pinpoint accuracy by the other members of Giriki's team.

It wasn't long before Mochi was the last one standing, she couldn't stop her legs from shaking as Giriki took aim and threw. She quickly closed her eyes anticipating the stinging impact of the speeding death ball but her quirk suddenly sprung into action creating a dome of pure pink cotton like material around her which the ball smashed into but the shock of the impact had evaporated with ease. The gorilla looked dumbfounded unable to understand why his attack had no affect but it didn't stop him from trying again, grabbing two more dodgeballs he launched them with all his might but the puffy barrier simply swallowed them into nonexistence. Giriki grew from simply annoyed to enraged, he grabbed the remaining dodgeballs and started rapid firing with machine gun like power. The barrier's durability soon wore off as it disappeared with a exploding poofing effect firing the dodgeballs back at Giriki's face knocking him unconscious as well as one ball hitting one of the water sprinklers on the ceiling causing water to rain from above. The students quickly dispersed and Mochi was left alone in now flooded gym, Nico couldn't help but laugh a bit after hearing her story.

"Wow, that bad huh?"

"It was so embarrassing! Not to mention they made me dry the entire gym by myself!"

"It's a good thing your cotton puffs are water absorbent as well as great shields for the amount of messes you make or else you'd have a much tougher time cleaning up after yourself."

Mochi pouted a bit.

"Yeah but it shouldn't be the main thing I use my quirk for, but that's no reason to fail me. What am I going to do?"

"Relax, I'll go see if I can do anything about it."

"Really!? Oh thank you Nico! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

Mochi suddenly hugged him tightly from the front this time aggressively sandwiching his head between her breasts as she did so. Looks like his lunch break had to wait a bit since Mochi was definitely in need of his services, again. His work is never done and never exactly easy either since it just so happened the school's humanoid doberman gym teacher was Mr.Yowza, one of the meanest teachers in the building. The last time Nico messed with him he almost got caught posing as Ms.Numu, the young and attractive librarian Mr.Yowza had the hots for since the first day of school hoping to score some gym passes to sell to the other students.

Thankfully he got out of that situation just in time before the dog faced man tried to spring the question on him, it sent shivers down Nico's spine just by thinking about it. Since it was lunch time was no doubt in the teachers lounge like always, Nico slowly crept along the walls before kneeling in front of the door peaking through the window to see the man alone typing away on the lounge's laptop.

The only problem was that Nico always suspected to have some sort of lie detecting ability as part of his quirk since he was able to sniff out something amiss (pun intended). But Nico wasn't going for a disguise approach this time thanks to this new ability he's been working on, he breathed in deeply and slowly exhaled as his body and clothes slowly turned into pure white smoke which slithered underneath the door and filled the small room in seconds. stopped typing as soon as he noticed the room was foggy and his vision growing blurry all of a sudden, the potency of the smoke proved too much as he started coughing and wheezing quickly exiting the room allowing Nico to reform and freely access the laptop.

"Now lets see what we can do about Mochi's failing P.E. grade." He said cracking his hands before quickly closing whatever business was doing before pulling up the gradebook.

He looked through the list of names before finding Mochi's, he winced at the sight of the grade.

"A 35? In gym? Geez. Let's just fix that right now."

He changed the 35 to a nearly perfect 95 before he thought about it for a moment and quickly dropped it down to a fair 79 to be more realistic.

"Done." He declared with a clap of his hands right before noticing the pile of papers next to the laptop.

After scavenging through the papers he found something that made this job even more profitable, just then he heard footsteps approaching knowing it was returning.

The teacher opened the door to see no one in the room but the faint smoky smell still lingered. In the lunch room Nico's usual group of friends were sitting at their usual table when he walked in with a cocky grin on his face. Ramaru Hyouma, a light tanned skin toned boy with short deep green hair dressed in a white turtleneck jacket and a blue scottish bonnet along with his school uniform noticed this and knowing Nico no good could come of it.

"What are you so happy for?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Oh nothing, just that I just hit the gym pass jackpot." Nico said dumping the contents of his bag onto the table which was in fact a month's worth of gym passes.

"Whoa! Where did you get all these?" the fish faced Kokobi asked as he grew starry eyed at the many passes.

"I swiped them from the teachers lounge after helping Mochi with her little problem."

"Heh, yeah I heard what happened. She flooded the entire gym, this must be fifth time she's destroyed part of the school. I wouldn't be surprised if they flunked her entirely." Kano laughed.

Kano Volcan, a dark skinned boy with short yet radiant red and black hair whose skin was mostly rocky and brittle due to his quirk. Because of this he has to wear a red and black thermal monitoring suit instead of regular clothes at all times to ensure he doesn't overheat.

"Hey cool it Kano, you know she doesn't do it on purpose." Ramaru shot back.

"I know, that's what makes it hilarious." Kano started laughing out loud, Ramaru quickly became annoyed before he suddenly slammed his fist onto his tray of food which landed on the laughing Kano covering him in mash potatoes and gravy.

He immediatley shot up from his seat with his eyes flaring with rage, Ramaru did the same getting up close to Kano's face.

"Wanna go?" he asked with a menacing glare, Kano's left eye twitch with fury.

But before an old fashioned lunch room rumble could began a pink ball of puff appeared in between them and Mochi hatched from it.

"Hey Hey! I'm back from the library! Nico I saw my grade change and now I'm not failing anymore! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

Mochi leaped from the table and started hugging Nico all over again.

"Heh, no problem Mochi. Glad I could help."

"I see you don't charge her for help." Kokobi sighed.

"Why would he? She's basically his girlfriend so she probably re-pays him in a different way." Kano whispered right before Ramaru smacked the back of his head.

"By the way Mochi, earlier you said you had good news to tell us."

"Oh yeah, everyone! Pro heroes and talent scouts are visiting our school next week! Can you believe it!?" "Whoa! Really? They're coming here?" Kokobi exclamied.

"Exactly what for?" Ramaru asked.

"For us to show off our quirks of course! Isn't it obvious? Think of it, we can actually meet some pro heroes in person and show them what we're made of. They might even sponsor us, or better yet let us join their leagues! It's always been a lifelong dream of mine to join a hero league!"

"That is if you can impress them fish face." Ramaru mocked.

"I will! Just you wait! In fact, let's all train together for the rest of the week so we can be ready to show them what we've got!"

"I like that plan! I'm feeling pretty fired up already!" Kano shouted as he and Kokobi were both bathed in an intense fiery aura.

After school was over for the day the five friends walked home together, Kano and Kokobi were still going over their plan to train non-stop all week the whole time they walked. They all soon said their goodbyes for the day and parted ways, Nico had to walk the longest distance towards the more shadier parts of the city before stopping in front of an old apartment building. Riding the elevator he stopped on the 5th floor before walking up to the door labeled 5-D.

"I'm home." He announced as he entered through the door.

"Welcome home sweetie, I'm just finishing making dinner." His mother called from the kitchen.

Nikiki Shinobu, a deep brown skin tone with snow white hair in a spikey afro style who is not only the best pink apron wearing ninja cook around but the only one to use samurai katana swords as her main tools of cooking able to slice through meat, fruit, and vegetables with ease. The other amazing trait his mother possessed was her extremely youthful appearance having the body and face of a young 20-year old woman, at first glance you would mistake the two for siblings at least. Once she was done she handed her son a plate of barbequed pork chops, baked macaroni, green beans, and a fruit bowl salad for dessert. After Nico soon finished eating he decided to turn in early for the night entering his room and falling face first on his bed.

A few hours later:

It was almost 12 o' clock at night when Nico woke up to use the bathroom, as he passed by the living room he noticed a pile of papers in front of the door which meant the mailman must've came by not too long ago. He collected the papers and started going through them: they were mostly water and electricity bills, family letters, eviction notice newspapers, coupons-wait, eviction notice? Nico blinked twice as the words eviction notice stamped in red ink stared back at him. How could this happen? He knew his mom works up to 3 to 4 jobs a day to keep them out of the red but this was way too much red on one envelope. This couldn't be real, this had to be a joke. A joke if his mother saw would devastate her and the very last thing he wanted to see her upset about something he couldn't prevent.

"I have to do something about this, but what?"

The next day:

Nico walked the hallways still thinking to himself about that eviction letter he hid from his mother, but knowing her she might find it soon. He had to think of something, and fast.

"Nico!" Mochi called from further down the hall waving at him.

But before he could answer back he was suddenly pulled into a nearby classroom, he was even more surprised to see who it was who grabbed him.

"Mr.Yowza?!? What are you doing here?"

"I'm substituting for Mr. Dono's math class today but since none of the students have arrived yet I figured now would be a good time to talk to you about something. Something important."

His tone was low and serious, Nico started to sweat on the inside for he was the only person close enough to almost catch him.

"M-Mr.Yowza, I-I-I-"

"Please, Mr.Yowza is an alias of mine."

"An alias. For what?"

"You really think I'm just a gym teacher?"

"Well, yeah. That's what everyone thinks."

"Right, because that's what I want them to think."

Nico started getting confused.

"So if you're not really a gym teacher, then who are you exactly."

"You can call me Big Boss, but I think a better question is who are you supposed to be."

"Huh?"

"Your quirk kid, it caught my attention so I've kept my eye on you for some time now. "Ghost of Yokai Garden High" right? Heh. You've got quite the reputation of never getting caught, that right?"

"Yeah but, if you're asking for a favor I only do those for close friends and people I can trust."

"Hey, you can trust me. After all me and your dad, we go way back."

"…My dad? You knew him?"

"And you didn't."

Nico scowled at him.

"Touchy subject? I get it. Anyway long story short me and your old man had a bit of a fallout a few years back."

"How bad a fallout?"

"Umm, I'd say about….500,000."

"500,000!? For what?"

"500,000 he owes me for doing him the biggest favor of all time. But he vanished off the face of the earth before he could pay me back all that money, I think you already know where this is headed."

"Listen, me and my mom, we don't have that kind of money right now."

"Hmm. Okay, fine. I know another way you can pay your father's debt."

"What exactly are you asking for?"

"…I want you to become my personal hitman."

"Personal hitman?"

"That's right. Ya see, your old man isn't the only one who owes me for my services. So I need someone to send the message for me, one way or another. And in return I'll pay you for your troubles, so…you in?"

Nico looked down at the floor, to be honest this was a lot to take in all at once. After weighing all his options, he finally made his choice.

"I'm in."


End file.
